Chapter Text
Part 1a: Prologue
May 2, 2012, The Other Side:
The spirits of the witches on the other side that had helped Sheila Bennett prepare the world transferal spell for Bonnie that was meant to save the Bennett bloodline watched in dismay as they saw her silhouette standing next to a larger form. As the other side was unraveling and their precious soon-to-be-again witch grasped hands with the vampire spirit of Damon Salvatore, they used the final seconds that they had left before crossing over to join together and cast a final, ancient purification spell. Their very last bit of remaining magic was their last act before they could find their peace, although it was done both to punish the vampire they despised, yet also to protect their chosen descendant from being trapped with him in his current state. They could not have let Bonnie be trapped with a dangerous vampire, but in his new form, at least he would not be a threat. As the magic left them, their spirits found peace, and only the anchor and vampire remained, with the latter unaware of the powerful magic blazing towards him in the chaos.
"Do you think it will hurt?" Bonnie asked Damon before the two were fully engulfed in the bright white light as the other side fell out of existence.
She vaguely remembered hearing Damon trying to say "I don't know," before everything was just gone.
The overwhelming illumination caused her to squeeze her eyes shut until she finally realized she was laying on the ground, still grasping Damon's hand. His hand felt different, the softer grip no longer so firm nor the hand fully encapsulating her own much smaller hand.
She opened her eyes, finding herself staring upwards at the trees that shot towards the sky. As she sat up, releasing Damon's hand, she heard him groan. The voice she heard sounded wrong, and her focus snapped towards the prone vampire next to her, only to see an unfamiliar boy staring back at her in surprise, with wide eyes that were as pale blue as Damon Salvatore’s, but with the softer cheeks and innocent gaze of a child.
Mystic Falls, April 4, 1851:
The train had arrived early, and young Damon could only hope that he'd somehow manage to return home before his father. He'd been enjoying his freedom a bit too much while Giuseppe was away on an important business trip in Atlanta for the past week.
Instead of spending his extra time helping his mother and their staff to run the estate like his father had expected him to do as the eldest son, Damon had had spent the majority of his time carefree. The lack of his father’s scrutiny had felt liberating, and aside from his regular duties of caring for his favorite animals, he’d enjoyed his freedom immensely. So much so, that he'd lost track of the days and had forgotten that his father was due to return home soon. Damon had only just heard of the train's early arrival from his friend Jack Forbes, whose own uncle was also scheduled to arrive.
Having been out in the fields racing against some of the older boys and their steeds on his father's horse, Ardito, Damon was now in a panic to return the horse to its pasture and get home before Giuseppe. He was terrified that he would be too late, and was recklessly rushing the gelding through a shortcut that was not meant for galloping horses.
Unfortunately, after a week filled with joy rides, the horse now flung a shoe that had come loose, and the boy was tossed from the saddle. Uninjured but frantic, the horse fled, leaving Damon behind in the forest. The boy stood up too fast, his head aching from the hard landing, and with ringing in his ears he fell back to the ground as everything went white.
Damon awoke, reaching up to his crown and feeling that the bump he’d gotten on his head from falling had completely vanished. As he opened his eyes, he felt completely disoriented, as this was a different part of the forest than where he had fallen from Ardito. A groan escaped him, and at that moment his hand was released by the person laying next to him. Huh?
Dark green eyes met ice blue eyes, both looking upon the other in shock.
"Damon? What happened to you? Where are we?" Bonnie wasn't sure what to ask first. She noticed immediately that the boy sitting on the ground next to her was dressed in the same jeans, v-neck tee and leather jacket that he'd been wearing when he'd died and been on the other side with her.
Only now, the once tight fitting clothes were too baggy and too long, and the dark haired, blue eyed man that she knew looked at least a dozen years too young. Damon wasn't even a man anymore, he was no more than a preteen, and he looked absolutely terrified.
"Uhhnnn, who are you?” The boy rubbed his dizzy head before his thoughts returned to him, and he gasped, “Oh, no, I cannot be here, I must return home!"
Damon leaped to his feet, promptly stumbling as he fell right out of his over-sized boots and tripped over his lengthy pants legs.
"Ooomph!" As Damon face-planted onto the dirt, Bonnie looked at him in shock before instinctively walking over and trying to help him back up.
“Um, Damon?” Bonnie wasn’t entirely sure if this was even him anymore, or if he’d been replaced by some other young occupant of the other side with an eerie resemblance to her frenemy?
"Please, miss, I… I must find my father's horse and return home, or I'll surely be beaten!" He cried out, looking around in a panic, trying to quickly roll up his pants legs in order to walk.
"What the devil am I wearing?" he said, in utter bafflement. Bonnie found herself perplexed by the familiarity of this boy, who had Damon's same exaggerated eyebrow movements as he displayed his emotions, despite the shocking difference in his age.
As soon as his pants were no longer dragging the ground, Damon pulled off the long socks and began racing barefooted in the direction that he still believed the horse may have ran if it were to be heading back home towards the safety of its stable.
As he ran, he noticed that something about the forest seemed strange, different; the trees weren't the heights they should be, nor were they familiar. As he arrived at the edge of the clearing, he slowed to a stop, and the ruins of what should have been his family estate stood before him.
Bonnie chased after the youngster through the woods and finally caught up to him as he fell to his knees and gasped loudly. She reached for his shoulder as she tried to catch her breath, only to realize that he was trembling.
"This place; it is not my home. I do not understand? How am I lost?" He spoke in barely a whisper, finally turning his gaze up towards Bonnie, a tear running down his cheek.
"Um, can you tell me the last thing that you remember?" she asked him cautiously, unsure of how or why he had transformed into this boy, instead of remaining the older and dangerous Damon she'd known and despised for the last few years.
"I was riding home, and fell off of my father's horse, and the world became too bright. I then opened my eyes and was on the ground, laying next to you," Damon stated as he began wandering through the ruins, touching the overgrowth on the stone bricks and broken statues in dismay.
"When exactly did that happen? The year?" Bonnie asked, a huge lump forming in her throat.
"The fourth of April, 1851," Damon responded, looking at Bonnie as if she was the one who had lost her mind, narrowing his blue eyes at her appearance. "When else would you believe that it may be?"
"Oh, I dunno, May 2, 2012, when 'the other side' blinked out of existence and we ended up here. Except I'm still me and you are...not the same at all." Bonnie and the boy, Damon, stared at each other, neither of them sure what to make of the other.
He looked back up at her, his nose wrinkling, “Was it you who has caused this to happen? Some of my friends have spoken of witches from long ago haunting the forests, but I did not think that the stories were true!”
“Uh, no! This is not my fault!” Bonnie cried out, “I’m just as lost and confused as you are, Damon. You are still Damon, right?”
Finally, the boy plopped down onto what was once the base of a large garden statue, burying his face in his hands. Shaking his head in disbelief, he mumbled, "I can not understand what has happened. How do you seem to know me, but I have never met you?"
Taking a deep breath, Bonnie began to reply, "Before I came here, we knew each other and I was standing next to you, only you were grown up, and had been... for a very long time. I'm not sure what exactly has happened to you, but this is definitely not 1851. We should stick together, and try to go into town and figure out what's going on."
Bonnie held her hand out to him, not sure how to treat this new 'Damon'. The vampire that she knew was still not her favorite person, but this boy seemed so helpless and frightened and she didn't want him to run off again.
Damon hesitated, but took her hand. "I am Damon Salvatore, but you already seem to know me even though I have never seen you before. You are not one of Father's servants. Please, tell me your name, miss?"
"Bonnie Bennett. You can just call me Bonnie, and no, I'm definitely not anyone's servant." She suppressed her feelings of anger and tried to remain calm.
This child version of Damon didn't seem to understand that what he’d said was offensive. Right now, she wasn't sure if he actually had time traveled from 1851, or if Damon had physically and mentally transformed into a younger version of himself, somehow. Either way, she was completely freaked out and wanted to keep him with her while she figured out what was going on. It would do her no good to upset him any more than he already was.
Soon, the two found themselves standing in the middle of the street in front of the Mystic Grill, which, surprisingly was not blown up. They were all alone, and it was quite eerie to see the streets of Mystic Falls empty during the middle of the day.
Suddenly, Bonnie realized that Damon had walked into town without any dire repercussions that the anti-magic border would have caused him if he were a vampire.
"You are right, this is not 1851," Damon whispered, breathing shakily, squeezing her hand tighter and looking around in awe at the modern buildings and parked cars.
"Why don't we see any people? If we're still on 'the other side' we should at least be able to see the living." Bonnie cringed at her words, realizing that this Damon did not remember dying and being on 'the other side'.
"Where are we, Miss Bonnie?" The boy gazed around in total wonder and confusion.
"It's just Bonnie, and I have no idea." She took her jacket off and tied it around her waist. Damon looked at her scandalously, as if she had just gone fully naked, and she rolled her eyes.
There was no point in attempting to avoid the culture shock he appeared to be having, and their attire was the least of her concerns. Suddenly realizing that his glancing up and down at her form might be rude, he blinked and looked away.
Bonnie led them through the streets until she found herself in front of the Gilbert family's old house, standing as perfect as it had before Elena had set the whole place ablaze when Jeremy had died.
"How many more empty streets must we wander?" Damon ran his hands over the hood of the strange, metallic, horseless carriage parked in front of the house that had caught her attention. It just looked like another random empty house as far as he could tell. "Bonnie, what is it that you see?"
"This used to be my friend's house, but it shouldn't be here. It burned to the ground, and the cars are all so old, but they look brand new," Bonnie looked at Damon, watching him trying to process what she was saying in comparison to how this world appeared to a boy who didn't even remember the 21st century. As if everything wasn't already confusing enough.
"Look," He squeaked, picking up a newspaper that had been laying on the ground.
"Rare solar eclipse expected to be seen across twelve states," Bonnie read the headline aloud.
Damon looked at her dumbfounded before pointing his index finger and saying, "The date..."
"May 10th, 1994. Is that, are we...but that's impossible," she stammered as the sky darkened overhead, and they watched the eclipse take place.
"Well, then, I suppose that settles the question of when we are," Damon replied matter-of-factually, and Bonnie realized that despite how extraordinary this situation was, he finally seemed to be accepting and adapting to it. That's when she heard his stomach grumble.
“Excuse me, Miss Bonnie. Are you hungry? I am feeling famished, but what do people eat in 1994?" Damon asked before taking Bonnie's hand and leading her up onto the porch, rapping on the door. "Pardon me, is anyone home?"
Of course, there was no answer, and Bonnie sighed, opening the door and turning on the lights, causing Damon to jump back in surprise.
"Oh, right, in the 20th century we have electricity and lights, and refrigerators, which all seem to be working fine here for some reason," she said as she opened the door to the fridge and began looking for something that she knew how to cook. If the Gilberts happened to miraculously walk in on her using their kitchen, she’d be too ecstatic to care about what they’d say.
Damon watched her a moment, and he too began to explore the kitchen, touching all of the modern appliances. Bonnie was suddenly startled when he began pushing buttons on the blender, a look of amazement on his face as it roared and spun.
"Okay...can you please stop touching things before you hurt yourself!" she said with a bit of annoyance, only to be surprised when he hung his head and immediately apologized.
"I am sorry, Bonnie, I did not wish to upset you,” as he spoke, the look on his face appeared to be completely genuine, without even a hint of sarcasm, and she found herself staring at this strange new Damon with her mouth hanging open.
"Um, it's fine. Here, you can help me make dinner." Bonnie wasn't really even sure how to act or talk around him anymore.
As they worked together in the kitchen, she discovered that while he spoke with a sweet and earnest politeness that the Damon she’d known had lost long before she'd met him, there were still moments when his facial expressions were all too familiar. His transformation into this child version of himself was even stranger to her than the fact that they were stranded in an unpopulated version of 1994. Whatever had happened when the ‘other side’ had collapsed, this was certainly not the situation that she’d have ever expected to wind up in.
Later, as they ate the ravioli, covered in pasta sauce and cheese that they'd quickly thrown together, Damon began asking Bonnie a slew of questions in his young voice that had only a mere hint of adolescence beginning to break through. Bonnie found herself amazed at how willingly he now accepted everything she told him, despite his lack of memories.
"What is 'the other side'?"
"How am I still alive in 2012 if that is when you came from?"
"Vampires, werewolves, and witches are real in your world?"
"Were we married?"
Bonnie choked on her water at the last question. For some reason after spending the last hour explaining to the boy everything she could without being overly graphic about vampires, witches, werewolves and what happened to them when 'the other side' was destroyed, that was the question that completely caught her off guard.
Damon saw her reaction and decided to explain his thoughts, "If we were the only ones who did not escape the bright thing when the ‘other side’ collapsed, and we were holding hands when it happened, then I thought that perhaps you were my wife in 2012, because you are very pretty and nice." Damon grinned, before wiping sauce off of his face with a napkin.
"No! We are not married! We don't even like each other!" Bonnie watched his face fall at the last part of her response and was annoyed that she felt bad. Having to interact with her least favorite person in the form of an adorable child was just a little bizarre.
"Look, Damon, where I come from, you have changed a whole lot in the past century and a half, and vampires and witches don't tend to get along very well. It's actually kind of a big deal that we are even allies," Bonnie really didn’t want to go into all the reasons that she had despised the full grown version of the Damon that she remembered loathing.
After dinner, Damon began bombarding Bonnie with questions again, many of which she couldn't answer, while he sat swinging barefoot on Elena's porch. His feet looked filthy and sore, and Bonnie realized that she was probably going to have to bring him somewhere to find shoes and clothes that would actually fit him.
"It feels so weird to be back here, I practically grew up on this porch," she said after several moments of quiet reflection. Realizing the swing had finally stopped squeaking, she looked over at the boy who was watching her with his attentive blue eyes and furrowed brows.
"Bonnie, what do you think brought us here?"
She considered her words carefully, replying "Before the other side collapsed, my Grams said that she made a sacrifice so that I could find peace."
"Surely this is not..."
"Well, this clearly... this isn't peace, otherwise I wouldn't be stuck here with you," Bonnie cut him off a bit harsher than she intended. She softened her tone and continued, "She must have, I don't know, sent me somewhere, and when I held your hand it took you with me. At least, it took part of you with me…"
Damon's face scrunched up as if he was struggling not to cry, but instead he swallowed a deep breath, and she saw his tiny Adam's apple move before his strained voice spoke up again, a bit more hardened than before. "Did she happen to provide any instructions or cryptic clues that would perhaps allow you to find us a magical path out of this place? I, for one, am ready to return to where I belong. I need to find my father’s horse immediately and return to Stefan forthwith."
"No, but if we got here by magic, then magic should be able to get us out," she replied, focusing with all of her effort on a glass of water that sat next to her on the porch. "Phesmatos incendia!"
As Bonnie felt disappointment settling into the pit in her stomach, Damon fell forward from the swing that he'd been leaning too far forward on, watching her failed attempt as if something still might happen.
"Ow," he yelped, flipping his hand over, and pulling out a large wooden splinter. The wound bled without healing, and they looked at each other, then back between the cup and the wound.
Finally, Damon spoke, "If what you told me is true, and you are supposed to be a witch, and I was a vampire, then why are we just normal people with no magic or powers, and how will we ever escape?"